
In response to journalist for his views on the future of mankind at his 70th birthday (16 April 1959)
A collection of quotes on the topic of hydrogen, atom, bomb, bombing.
In response to journalist for his views on the future of mankind at his 70th birthday (16 April 1959)
Source: The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989), p. 239; this may be derived from a similar observation by Harlan Ellison which is sometimes misattributed to Zappa: "The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity."
“There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life.”
“The two most common elements in the world are hydrogen and stupidity.”
The Ballot or the Bullet (1964), Speech in Cleveland, Ohio (April 3, 1964)
Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948), part I, "The World of Science", chapter 3, "The World of Physics", p. 41
1940s
Other
Source: Lectures on Quantum Mechanics (2012, 2nd ed. 2015), Ch. 2: Particle States in a Central Potential
“The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.”
Introduction to Blast Off : Rockets, Robots, Ray Guns, and Rarities from the Golden Age of Space Toys (2001) by S. Mark Young, Steve Duin, Mike Richardson, p. 6; the quote on hydrogen and stupidity is said to have originated with an essay of his in the 1960s, and is often misattributed to Frank Zappa, who made similar remarks in The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989): "Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe."
Context: NO ONE GETS OUT OF CHILDHOOD ALIVE. It's not the first time I've said that. But among the few worthy bon mots I've gotten off in sixty-seven years, that and possibly one other may be the only considerations eligible for carving on my tombstone. (The other one is the one entrepreneurs have misappropriated to emboss on buttons and bumper stickers: The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.
(I don't so much mind that they pirated it, but what does honk me off is that they never get it right. They render it dull and imbecile by phrasing it thus: "The two most common things in the universe are..."
(Not things, you insensate gobbets of ambulatory giraffe dung, elements! Elements is funny, things is imprecise and semi-guttural. Things! Geezus, when will the goyim learn they don't know how to tell a joke.
Source: What On Earth Is About To Happen… For Heaven’s Sake? (2013), p. 44
Quoted in The world of Andrei Sakharov: a Russian physicist's path to freedom (2005) By Gennadiĭ Efimovich Gorelik, Antonina W. Bouis, p. 134.
1860s, On a Piece of Chalk (1868)
On energy supply and solar power
Source: What On Earth Is About To Happen… For Heaven’s Sake? (2013), p. 48
Speech https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1955-03-01/debates/ae81a20b-68e7-42d0-8cbb-d9589f53fc0d/Defence#1899 in the House of Commons (1 March 1955)
Post-war years (1945–1955)
How Plants are Trained to Work for Man (1921) Vol. 5 Gardening
Speech at the Labour Party Conference (4 October 1957), on unilateral nuclear disarmament.
1950s
Principles of Biochemistry, Ch. 2 : Water
2014
http://www.blastr.com/2014-9-12/grant-morrisons-big-talk-getting-deep-writer-annihilator-multiversity
On life
Exclusive Interview with Aron Ra – Public Speaker, Atheist Vlogger, and Activist https://conatusnews.com/interview-aron-ra-past-president-atheist-alliance-america/, Conatus News (May 17, 2017)
"Inside, Outside", p. 567 of the hardcover edition. The quote is fictional physicist Mark Herz answering the protagonist's question "What can you know about G-d? You either believe or you don't."
In "Life lessons" http://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/apr/07/science.highereducation?fb_ref=desktop The Guardian (7 April 2005)
Alick Bartholomew: The Schauberger Keys
And some guy says, "Damnit! I'll have to walk to work!"
Quoted in Daniel DePerez, "An Interview with Philip K. Dick," http://www.philipkdickfans.com/frank/sfrinter.htm Science Fiction Review, No. 19, Vol. 5, no. 3 (August 1976)
Source: 1970s, Ecodynamics: A New Theory Of Societal Evolution, 1978, p. 28
“Hydrogen is a light, odorless gas, which, given enough time, turns into people.”
Smithsonian Magazine, December, 1995.
p. 336 http://books.google.com/books?id=zAhJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA336; Cited in: Edmund Ruffin An Essay on Calcareous Manures, Volume 1. J.W. Randolph, 1852. p. 85.
Ruffin summarizes:
"Humus" is the term used by this author for the decomposed vegetable and other organic matter which is more or less mixed with all surface soil, and which gives to soil all its fertility, and furnishes all the food of plants.
The Principles of Agriculture, 1844, Section III: Agronomy
"Spiritualism, Morality and Eating Habits" (Inaugural speech at the International Vegetarian Congress at Bombay on November 9, 1957), in Speeches Of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, President Of India, 1957-58, p. 96 https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.100670/2015.100670.Speeches-Of-Drrajendra-Prasad-President-Of-India1957-58#page/n105/mode/2up/search/MORALITY+AND+EATING.
Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics (1987)
Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979)
When Did Nature Get So Whiney? (12 September 2003)
Speech at the Opening of the Bandung Conference
Source: Advanced Systems Thinking, Engineering and Management (2003), p. 24
Interview with Brian Swimme by Susan Bridle, Enlightenment Magazine issue 19 The Great Story http://www.thegreatstory.org/SwimmeWIE.pdf
The Key to the Universe (1977)
Context: In a sense, human flesh is made of stardust.
Every atom in the human body, excluding only the primordial hydrogen atoms, was fashioned in stars that formed, grew old and exploded most violently before the Sun and the Earth came into being. The explosions scattered the heavy elements as a fine dust through space. By the time it made the Sun, the primordial gas of the Milky Way was sufficiently enriched with heavier elements for rocky planets like the Earth to form. And from the rocks atoms escaped for eventual incorporation in living things: carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur for all living tissue; calcium for bones and teeth; sodium and potassium for the workings of nerves and brains; the iron colouring blood red… and so on.
No other conclusion of modern research testifies more clearly to mankind’s intimate connections with the universe at large and with the cosmic forces at work among the stars.
Address to the United Nations, New York City (September 18, 1959), as reported by The New York Times (September 19, 1959), p. 8. The physicist quoted was eventually found to be William Davidon, associate physicist at Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois.
On the creation of the hydrogen bomb, in Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie
Context: At the end of the war, most people wanted to stop. I didn't. Because here was more knowledge. And in the coming uncertain period, with a dangerous man like Stalin around, and our incomplete knowledge, I felt that more knowledge is necessary. Among the people who knew a great deal about the hydrogen bomb, I was the only advocate of it. And that is, I think, my contribution. Not that I invented it, others would have — and others in the Soviet Union did. But I was the one person who put knowledge, and the availability of knowledge, above everything else.
On his research on atomic nuclei with Ernest Rutherford, p. 24
Portraits in Science interviews (1994)
Context: We were able to discover two new kinds of atomic species, one was hydrogen of mass 3, unknown until that time, and the other helium of mass 3, also unknown. … We were able to show that heavy hydrogen nuclei, that is to say the cores of heavy hydrogen atoms, could be made to react with one another to produce a good deal of energy and new kinds of atom. …Of course, we had no idea whatever that this would one day be applied to make hydrogen bombs. Our curiosity was just curiosity about the structure of the nucleus of the atom, and the discovery of these reactions was purely, as the Americans would put it, coincidental.
On his research on atomic nuclei with Ernest Rutherford, p. 24
Portraits in Science interviews (1994)
Context: We were able to discover two new kinds of atomic species, one was hydrogen of mass 3, unknown until that time, and the other helium of mass 3, also unknown. … We were able to show that heavy hydrogen nuclei, that is to say the cores of heavy hydrogen atoms, could be made to react with one another to produce a good deal of energy and new kinds of atom. …Of course, we had no idea whatever that this would one day be applied to make hydrogen bombs. Our curiosity was just curiosity about the structure of the nucleus of the atom, and the discovery of these reactions was purely, as the Americans would put it, coincidental.
Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter XV The Essential Science of Breathing